Dallas Prospect LIVE – Mavs offseason talk with Enyi Nduka
The OG Mavs Fastbreak team reunites to talk about the Mavs’ offseason overhaul and whether or not they believe Dallas can get back on track in 2023-2024.
Very good summary of the Dallas offseason so far. Hence why I dont have to say a lot about most of the points, cause I agree. Here are som additional points though, that most people do not know.
1st Luka was a good C&S guy in Europe. But over the last 5 seasons, that just was never his job. Think of it this way. You played a shooter for a long time and you were really good at it. But then for 5 years you never played the game. If you start again, you will not be nearly as good as before, but the more you play the game again, the better you will get. So Luka can be a 40% C&S 3 Point shooter. And he shows it with the Slovenian team right now. It seems like its in their gameplan, cause most opponents dont really guard Luka if he camps in the corner off ball…
2nd You guys are underestimating Holmes in my opinion. Holmes is a perfect fit for our offense. He has even a midrange game with his push-jump-floater he can hit extremely well even up to 15 ft. He shot 60% from 10-16 ft over the last 4 years… while taking 20% of all his shots from that range. Thats a pretty good sample size! And on defense he should also be an Upgrade, cause he is a better defensive rebounder and shot blocker then Powell. Not elite, or even good, but better. And he is as switchable as Powell as well. And considdering how good we played with Powell (more on that later), I think he can be a real upgrade. Not ideal, but better then any center we had over the last view years.
3rd I just hate the Powell slander. One simple question: In any team sport, what is the most important thing a team has to do to win games? Lets take the big 5 in the US… NFL score more points, MLB, score more points, NHL score more goals, MLS score more goals… NBA score more points! Does it matter who scores the points in the NBA? Or is the most important thing looking at lineups and teams, DOES THE TEAM OVERALL SCORE MORE POINTS? Here are some advanced stats from a view guys last season:
Player A: ORtg on/off 118.2/116.8 – DRtg on/off 119.2/115.7 – NetRtg on/off -1.0/+1.1 – min played 1738 Player B: ORtg on/off 122.4/114.6 – DRtg on/off 116.1/117.8 – NetRtg on/off +6.3/-3.2 – min played 1438 Player C: ORtg on/off 114.1/118.4 – DRtg on/off 116.0/117.6 – NetRtg on/off -1.9/+0.8 – min played 930 Player D: ORtg on/off 109.1/118.2 – DRtg on/off 116.0/117.3 – NetRtg on/off -6.8/+0.9 – min played 355
Maybe you guessed it. A is Wood, B is Powell, C is Maxi, D is McGee… so far and beyond Powell was our best big last season. And before you say it. Wood had a neg NetRtg as a starter. Even worse then his overall NetRtg. Or if you think… Powell played all minutes with Luka. No he didnt. He played as many minutes with Luka as Wood did last season. Powell's netRtg was +7.3, Wood's +1.3 with Luka. And how damaging Wood was becomes obvious looking at the minutes without Luka. Wood was a -3.8 without Luka, Powell a +3.9… So I say this for months now. Powell isnt a good starter on a PO team, and he shouldnt start (hence why I think Holmes will). BUT he is a damn great backup IN OUR SYSTEM. On other teams? probably not. But on ours! Everyone around him gets just easier looks, cause he is such a good screen setter and roll man. Thats why opponents have to either collapse (opens up a lot of uncontested 3 pointers) or Luka/Powell will have a field day in the 2 man game. Luka/Powell in 990 minutes last season had an ORtg of 124.3, no matter who the other 3 guys were… do you understand how stupidly good that is?
Oh, one last thing… Powell was injured in the Bubble PO run, and came off the bench in the 2nd Clippers PO matchup. And in those 2nd PO's, he (dont ask me why) barely saw any minutes. Except one game… Game 5. He played 21 minutes, 8 Points, 7 Rebounds, 2 Assits, +/- of +10 in a 5 point win. Outlyer? Maybe… we will never know, cause he only played 5 and 6 minutes in the last 2 losses. A 15 minute backup role, playing against opponents backup bigs, is perfect for him! So overall we only saw Powell in the WCF run. Did we ever see him play against bench Bigs, EVER in that run? Not one… I repeat, NOT ONE minute.
4th People look at the 2022 season in the wrong way. Yes our defense was 6th best overall. BUT we were 5th untill the KP Trade (team DRtg 106.9), with Powell as a starter btw, but only 16th after the trade. We were 6th in DRB% before, 25th after the trade. In the PO we were the 2nd worst defense of all 8 2nd round teams and by far the worst rebounding team. We won because of offense, and teams figured our defensive system out. So every NBA franchise now had the blue print how to beat us. And that was shown in the last season. Interestingly enough, we were 1st in opp 3PM, 3rd in opp 3PA and 4th in opp 3P%… so overall, we had the best perimeter D in the entire NBA… But without a roamer like KP as the help defender, noone could stop the drive. Long story short, Dallas has to either trade for a true rim protector (at the deadline or maybe even next summer) or has to change the defensive system. Cause we still do not have that elite help defender. I hope Lively will be that guy in a couple of seasons. But not this year and most likely not next season either.
3 Comments
Luka actually had 3 catch and shoot opportunities and he hit all 3 in the Japan game
Very good summary of the Dallas offseason so far. Hence why I dont have to say a lot about most of the points, cause I agree. Here are som additional points though, that most people do not know.
1st Luka was a good C&S guy in Europe. But over the last 5 seasons, that just was never his job. Think of it this way. You played a shooter for a long time and you were really good at it. But then for 5 years you never played the game. If you start again, you will not be nearly as good as before, but the more you play the game again, the better you will get. So Luka can be a 40% C&S 3 Point shooter. And he shows it with the Slovenian team right now. It seems like its in their gameplan, cause most opponents dont really guard Luka if he camps in the corner off ball…
2nd You guys are underestimating Holmes in my opinion. Holmes is a perfect fit for our offense. He has even a midrange game with his push-jump-floater he can hit extremely well even up to 15 ft. He shot 60% from 10-16 ft over the last 4 years… while taking 20% of all his shots from that range. Thats a pretty good sample size! And on defense he should also be an Upgrade, cause he is a better defensive rebounder and shot blocker then Powell. Not elite, or even good, but better. And he is as switchable as Powell as well. And considdering how good we played with Powell (more on that later), I think he can be a real upgrade. Not ideal, but better then any center we had over the last view years.
3rd I just hate the Powell slander. One simple question: In any team sport, what is the most important thing a team has to do to win games? Lets take the big 5 in the US… NFL score more points, MLB, score more points, NHL score more goals, MLS score more goals… NBA score more points! Does it matter who scores the points in the NBA? Or is the most important thing looking at lineups and teams, DOES THE TEAM OVERALL SCORE MORE POINTS? Here are some advanced stats from a view guys last season:
Player A: ORtg on/off 118.2/116.8 – DRtg on/off 119.2/115.7 – NetRtg on/off -1.0/+1.1 – min played 1738
Player B: ORtg on/off 122.4/114.6 – DRtg on/off 116.1/117.8 – NetRtg on/off +6.3/-3.2 – min played 1438
Player C: ORtg on/off 114.1/118.4 – DRtg on/off 116.0/117.6 – NetRtg on/off -1.9/+0.8 – min played 930
Player D: ORtg on/off 109.1/118.2 – DRtg on/off 116.0/117.3 – NetRtg on/off -6.8/+0.9 – min played 355
Maybe you guessed it. A is Wood, B is Powell, C is Maxi, D is McGee… so far and beyond Powell was our best big last season. And before you say it. Wood had a neg NetRtg as a starter. Even worse then his overall NetRtg. Or if you think… Powell played all minutes with Luka. No he didnt. He played as many minutes with Luka as Wood did last season. Powell's netRtg was +7.3, Wood's +1.3 with Luka. And how damaging Wood was becomes obvious looking at the minutes without Luka. Wood was a -3.8 without Luka, Powell a +3.9… So I say this for months now. Powell isnt a good starter on a PO team, and he shouldnt start (hence why I think Holmes will). BUT he is a damn great backup IN OUR SYSTEM. On other teams? probably not. But on ours! Everyone around him gets just easier looks, cause he is such a good screen setter and roll man. Thats why opponents have to either collapse (opens up a lot of uncontested 3 pointers) or Luka/Powell will have a field day in the 2 man game. Luka/Powell in 990 minutes last season had an ORtg of 124.3, no matter who the other 3 guys were… do you understand how stupidly good that is?
Oh, one last thing… Powell was injured in the Bubble PO run, and came off the bench in the 2nd Clippers PO matchup. And in those 2nd PO's, he (dont ask me why) barely saw any minutes. Except one game… Game 5. He played 21 minutes, 8 Points, 7 Rebounds, 2 Assits, +/- of +10 in a 5 point win. Outlyer? Maybe… we will never know, cause he only played 5 and 6 minutes in the last 2 losses. A 15 minute backup role, playing against opponents backup bigs, is perfect for him! So overall we only saw Powell in the WCF run. Did we ever see him play against bench Bigs, EVER in that run? Not one… I repeat, NOT ONE minute.
4th People look at the 2022 season in the wrong way. Yes our defense was 6th best overall. BUT we were 5th untill the KP Trade (team DRtg 106.9), with Powell as a starter btw, but only 16th after the trade. We were 6th in DRB% before, 25th after the trade. In the PO we were the 2nd worst defense of all 8 2nd round teams and by far the worst rebounding team. We won because of offense, and teams figured our defensive system out. So every NBA franchise now had the blue print how to beat us. And that was shown in the last season. Interestingly enough, we were 1st in opp 3PM, 3rd in opp 3PA and 4th in opp 3P%… so overall, we had the best perimeter D in the entire NBA… But without a roamer like KP as the help defender, noone could stop the drive. Long story short, Dallas has to either trade for a true rim protector (at the deadline or maybe even next summer) or has to change the defensive system. Cause we still do not have that elite help defender. I hope Lively will be that guy in a couple of seasons. But not this year and most likely not next season either.
I believe that JKidd and the whole organization last year were victims of JB leaving. The vibes were down for the whole team, at every level!!